Switchfoot takes its name from a surfing term, but it could also describe their approach to spirituality in their music – one foot in this world, the other in the next. Their most recent album, Vice Verses (released Sept. 27) is one of their most openly spiritual efforts. Frontman Jon Foreman told a Red Rocks audience in April that Vice Verses would be their”best attempt at a worship record,” and it certainly is that. Denver Post reporter John Meyer interviewed Foreman before the band’s sold-out show Oct. 7 at the Boulder Theater.

John Meyer: There are a bunch of songs on Vice Verses that are prayers: Afterlife, Blinding Light, Thrive, Restless, Vice Verses, Where I Belong. What’s it like to write and perform songs like that, especially when you’re hoping to reach a mainstream audience?

Jon Foreman: I never subdivide humans into categories of Christian or Muslim or atheist or agnostic. I feel like, even early on, playing all sorts of places – whether it was coffee shops or bars or colleges or churches, whatever we could – there’s hurting people everywhere that are trying to look for meaning and purpose and beauty, finding it in relationships or a sports team or a song or in religion.

For me, I’ve always been attracted to people who are telling the truth, so that’s one thing we’ve tried to do as a band — just tell the truth. From day one, we’ve never been one to shy away from what we believe. We’ve always been very straightforward and honest about it.

I’m a Denver Post sports copy editor, who covers Christian music in my spare time. I’m a rocker at heart. Grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, The Who ... classic rock is what they call it now. I was introduced to Christian rock by my cousin, Sharon. My first Christian rock experience was Atlanta Fest when I saw this new group — Third Day — playing in front of about 50 people at an outdoor picnic area.